Air Filter, Air Intake

[Steven Salazar]

Can someone explain to me what modding your truck with air filter and air intake does?

[tbplus10]

Modding how?
Replacing with a cold air kit?
Putting in a reuseable air filter?
Opening up the air box for more flow?
You need to be a little more specific.

[rileyjr16]

An aftermarket air filter (K&N, Air Raid, Spectre, Volant) in your stock air box (flat filter) will allow more air to pass through the filter and the engine to breathe air in easier resulting in as some claim better MPG and horsepower.

An aftermarket air filter (cone style) with an aftermarket intake box (K&N, Volant, Spectre, Air Raid) will allow even more, a little cooler air to pass through the filter and helps the engine breathe air by having having a larger surface area of the filter and larger area to draw air from in the box; resulting in, well see above last 8 words.

An aftermarket air filter (cone style) with an aftermarket intake box AND aftermarket cold air tube will not only do all that ^^^ but it will draw in even cooler outside air into the engine. The putative principle behind a cold air intake is that cooler air has a higher density, thus containing more oxygen per volume unit than warmer air. This some also claim, translates to better MPG and even more HP. The cold air tube gives the incoming air more direct flow of the air to the engine instead of the stock intake.

The results will not be necksnapping. Maybe in the neighborhood of 5-10HP gain and maybe 1-2 more MPG. With my intake, I just have the aftermarket box and aftermarket cone air filter with my stock tube gutted of anything that may restrict the flow. After I installed it (1.5 hours at most) I noticed that my truck (99 5.3) ran a little bit quicker 0-60MPH. With the intake, I got an awesome sounding whistle from the engine sucking air through the filter.

[rileyjr16]

The pictures I have included are the different types:

The stock filter replacement (K&N)



This is like the one I have except I don't have that shiny metal tube (Spectre). I have my stock tube hooked up. for now. I picked up my kit from Ebay for $50 but can't seem to find it anymore. HOWEVER my brother had one, took it off his truck and may have it sitting around.


This is the Volant stlye intake. IMO, its the best one because it completely isolates the cooler outside air from the warmer underhood air with the cover on top

[SurrealOne]

With the intake, I got an awesome sounding whistle from the engine sucking air through the filter.

This is the only difference most people notice. MPG gains are rarely human-noticeable and when they are it's often observer error driven by lack of hard empirical evidence taken both before and after the adjustment (and failure to eliminate things like summer/winter fuel mix changes, seasonal air density changes, etc.). HP gains are seen but tend to manifest only at wide open throttle ... when the engine is gulping as much air as it possibly can and slightly denser air makes a mild but measureable difference.

[aloxdaddy99]

An engine is like basically a large air compressor. More Air in/out the better the performance of the engine.

[SurrealOne]

Agreed, combining intake mods AND exhaust mods to allow the entire system to breathe better should yield more substantial improvements. However, making mods only on the intake side of things won't do a whole heck of a lot by itself.